


Worth A Mistake Or Two

by icarus_chained



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Amusement, Character Study, Episode Related, Friendship (Of Sorts), Gen, Loyalty (Of Sorts), Money, Prosthesis, Trolling, information
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-12
Updated: 2016-07-12
Packaged: 2018-07-23 15:59:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7469871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icarus_chained/pseuds/icarus_chained
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Victor contemplating. Set just after Victor and Percy's nighttime conversation in Ep.57. In which Victor might not be quite as disconnected from reality as he might appear, and it doesn't necessarily take a genius to realise that Percy isn't always on the level either.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Worth A Mistake Or Two

**Author's Note:**

> Right. So I am _very new_ to this fandom, I've been watching this show for just about a week now. And no, I didn't quite watch fifty-nine 3-hour-plus long episodes in that time. I've watched about, um, seven-ish episodes which were ... kinda scattered all over the timeline? I think I started around Trial of the Take and bounced up or down based on what looked interesting, whole episodes and smaller chunks of other ones, filling in some blanks with spoilers and tv tropes while I catch up with the rest. I actually _am_ going to catch up, I'm just ... not very good at doing things in order, and it may take me a while? Heh. But. I watched all the Victor scenes, and I just wanted to give this a little go before I get back to working my way through. Warning for newbie with a very dodgy grasp of canon so far, yes?

The latches on the hand made little _click-click_ noises when he locked and unlocked the claws. Victor giggled faintly on his bed, clicking them back and forward, delighting in the sound of them. _Click-click. click-click_. Lovely things. Amazing things. That white-headed fella might be too twitchy by far, but he knew his way around a hand!

Needed work, maybe. Little work. Not the hand, lovely thing. The arm though. All sloppy and messy still. He needed to fix that. The hand was heavy, made the bandages all messy, the inside of the hand all slippery. Yes yes. Should fix that. Later. Do that tomorrow. Not to worry now. Tonight he was just going to admire the lovely thing. Maybe think about the fella a little too. Nice boy. Worrisome boy. Too twitchy. Secretive, hehe. Thought Victor didn't notice. Hah, well! He did. Not so cracked as all that. Victor noticed a _lot_.

Didn't tell anybody. Well. Maybe for money. But. Mostly didn't tell anybody. Just noticed. Had a think. Black powder. Made things memorable, hmm? Hehe. Very memorable. He needed to fix that. Though the hand would help. Hehe.

Percival. Hmm. Interesting boy. Nicer than the other one. The woman. Didn't like her so much. Nice money. Very nice money. Not the lady so much. Not like Percival's lady friend, the one who gave him his kiss. Mmm. Worth fifty gold, yes. He nudged the vial under his pillow with his foot, grinned to himself. Yes. Worth a _hundred_ gold. Wouldn't tell anybody that. Needed to bargain, yes? Hehe. Lovely thing, though. Lovely lady. Good friends, the boy had. Companions. Whatchacall'ems. Family? Maybe family. Funny sort, but maybe. Much better than the other lady. Slithery sort, that one. Nice money. The rest, not so much.

He liked the boy though. _Maybe_. Mostly. Dangerous sort. Bit slithery too, hmm? Hah! Bit ... what was the word? _Contemptuous_. Sneaksome and worrisome and contemptuous. Liked to coddle people. Liked to hide things. Victor noticed that. Made nice to folks so he could get his way. Still though. It was good nice, mostly. Trying to mind Victor. Reminding him not to break his arm. Hehe. Bit late. Silly concern. But nice. Good sort of nice. Stayed too. Had some tea. Hah! His _face_. Such a twitchy, twitchy boy. Wonderful fun!

Needed something, though. Needed ... work, fixing, something. Boy was powder. Not just buying it, made of it too. Victor had gotten good at the powder, a few little, hehe, _mistakes_ aside. He had a feel for it now. Had a feel for the boy, too. He was the kind of thing you lost hands to. Victor could just tell. Twitchy, touchy. Excitable. _Explosive_. He wondered idly how many limbs the friends-companions-whatchacall'ems still had. Somebody'd gotten the proportions wrong when they made that boy. Hehe. Put some of the more interesting bits in, maybe didn't mix them all that well. Shouldn't poke the boy, no. Not too sudden, not too hard. Made mistakes that way. Hah!

Boy knew it, too. Gentle gentle. Liked to coddle people. Liked to make things for them. Like the hand. _Click-click_. Lovely thing. With the spike, too, _perfect_ thing. Liked to look at people, the boy did, liked to make the _right_ thing. With secrets, yes, sly things, other things, but still. Liked to get it right. Liked to pay people. Liked to mind people. Money, trade. Liked things nice and even. Hehe. Good plan, that! Money was always nice. Very safe, money. Didn't explode very often. Not like powder. Not like people.

Wasn't very fun, though. Not on its own. Bought things, nice things, but not very interesting on its own. No, not like the powder at all. Not like the boy, either. What was a mistake or two, hmm? Well, painful, yes, very painful, and messy. Definitely those. But! But _interesting_. Always interesting. Found things out that way. Made life very exciting! And the boy was fun to poke. So nervous and alarmed. Sly and secretive and twitchy. And, yes, also nice. Trying to mind people. Hehe. Protect them from the coffee. Safe, not safe. Fun to poke. No malice, not really, just explosions. Could still kill you, yes, but _nice_ about it.

Well. Sometimes. For friends, anyway. There was that slithery thing. Victor saw it, yes he did. For _friends_ , just explosions, just mistakes. For nice people, friendly people who gave him tea and black powder, money and trade, nice and even. But there was a slithery thing. The way he asked about the lady. The way he called her a _nice young woman_ , his _friend_. Oh yes. Victor saw that too. Hehe, heh. Not mistakes, those. Not all explosions were mistakes. Worrisome boy. Slithery, dangerous. Not limbs then. Bigger hurts than that. _Not_ for poking.

Victor hummed thoughtfully to himself, curling his fingers around the metal edges of the claw. Thinking about it, yes. The white-headed boy, the other lady. Black powder. Questions, trade. Money. Very _nice_ money. But. Not nice lady. And very _dangerous_ boy. Victor wasn't blind, you know. Not stupid! But best pretend to be, maybe. Best pretend. Softly, softly. Learn from our mistakes! Just a merchant. Just a nice, innocent merchant. Money and trade, nice and safe. Let them sort themselves out. Maybe the one who won, they'd take the other's gold, keep paying that way. Not so many repeat customers anyway. Wouldn't be strange to lose another. Yes yes. Leave them alone, yes. Let them sort things out between them. Enough to be doing anyway. Mining, powder. Enough to be doing.

Not his business. He might just hope, though ... 

He might hope it was the boy that won. In the end. Less money, of course, much less money, but ... Nicer. Very dangerous, very worrisome, but still. The boy played along. The boy let himself be poked at. The boy came in and had tea, made nice. All sly, yes, making nice to get what he wanted, but still. He tried. Was gentle. Minded people, sometimes without noticing. Just because he didn't like mess, maybe. Just because he was nervous and twitchy and didn't like mess. But still. Still. The boy was ...

Hehe. The boy was powder. Victor liked him. He did. A touchy thing, mixed up all wrong, trying to be gentle. A sly, sneaky, contemptuous thing. Meant well. Liable to take your arm off, but he meant well. He'd make you another one to replace it. A lovely, _perfect_ one, one that went _click-click_ and had a spike and gripped things well enough to tear them apart. Lovely, lovely thing. Nice bit of trade. Not safe at all, but _very_ nice indeed. Heh. Paid his debts, the boy did. Might be worth a mistake or two here or there, no?

Not Victor's business, maybe. Not for poking, not for getting involved in. Money, trade. Nice, simple, nothing more. _Maybe_ telling things. Here or there. Just for money. Just ... just to the boy, maybe. The lady didn't talk to him much. Looked down her nose, kept her distance. Wouldn't ask, probably. And Victor rather suspected that telling things to the lady might be what crossed him over from 'money and trade' to ' _not_ mistakes'. Dangerous thing, that boy. _Dangerous_ thing. Wouldn't mind if Victor was threatened, maybe, but just for money? Heh. No. Some things were not for poking. That slithery thing was one of them. Victor could tell that. So. Just the boy. For telling things, just the boy. 

Besides. Didn't want the woman to win anyway, did he? Paid well, paid very well, but the lady wasn't as fun, and the lady didn't make him lovely things either. Hehe. It was such a lovely hand. The little noises it made. _Click-click_. The nice shiny pick blade. Oh yes. The boy was powder all right. The boy was worth a mistake or two. Lethal and touchy and explosive. A lovely, exciting thing to have around. He supposed if he had to pick just the one of them ...

Well. Victor never had been very good at _safe_ , had he? Hehe.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for any mistakes or things I missed. Heh. Victor honestly strikes me as quite shrewd, in his own ... unique way. He was totally trolling Percy with the tea/coffee, and he jumped right on 'money for silence' as an idea. Heh. And, um. I love Percy, I think he's one of my favourites (Pike, Scanlan and Grog are all up there too, Lyra, Zahra and Kima, oddly Vanessa and Craven Edge, and naturally Victor), but _holy hell_ is he hard for me to watch sometimes. Like, honey baby, you need ... lots of help, yes, and also to _tell people things_. Before anyone dies, preferably. I mean, I get why he doesn't, he's not very good at trust and he's too clever for his own good and he's afraid and deeply ashamed of his own dark spots, but that is a thing he needs to do.


End file.
